Around Town

Around Town

WILLIAMSBURG - Visitors to Colonial Williamsburg can hear 18th-century music and learn popular Colonial dances this summer at the Hall of the House of Burgesses in the Capitol.

"Musical Diversions 1989" offers an evening of instrumental and vocal music, including chamber music and sonatas performed on authentic 18th-century instruments and reproductions.

Performances are from 8-9:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sept. 5.

"Dance, Our Dearest Diversion" teaches visitors the importance of dance in 18th-century Virginia. Guests are invited to join in a variety of period dances, including the minuet, country dance, jigg, reel and cotillion.

Performances are 8-9 p.m. Thursdays through Aug. 31.

Tickets, $5, will be sold at the door; advance tickets are available at the Visitor Center two days before performances. For more information, call 220-7645.

HISTORICAL LOANS

YORK - The Yorktown Victory Center is seeking the loan of objects relating to Yorktown between 1691 and 1790 for a one-year exhibit that will open in September.

The exhibition, "The Town of York," will review 100 years of Yorktown's history, from the town's creation as a tobacco port in the 1690s, to the decade just following the fateful 1781 Revolutionary War battle for which Yorktown is famous.

The Victory Center is particulary interested in domestic objects, including furnishings, eating utensils, books and personal effects. The items should have belonged to residents of Yorktown or had some concrete connection with the town during the period covered by the exhibition.

Anyone interested in loaning objects for the exhibit should call Lucinda Cockrell or Ed Ayres at 887-1776 between 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays.

LIFE-SAVING EXHIBIT

VIRGINIA BEACH - The Life-Saving Museum of Virginia has opened a new permanent exhibit, "War Years."

The exhibit offers an illustrated history of the Battle of the Atlantic and its impact on East Coast shipping during the first six months of 1942. During this time, German submarines stationed along the East Coast sank 360 merchant ships. The U.S. Navy, along with the U.S. Coast Guard, had only a few cutters, blimps and patrol planes to establish a protective convoy system.

This new exhibit documents the struggle with photographs and artifacts from Germany and Allied sources.

Additional new exhibits at the museum include biographical profiles of Life-Saving Station crew members, "Personal Histories of the Surfmen," in the reconstructed bunkroom of the station; and the "Virginia Pilots Association" story, with models of historic pilot vessels and a video of a modern pilot as he helps an incoming ship navigate Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads.

The Life-Saving Museum of Virginia is located at 24th Street and Atlantic Avenue in a 1903 Life-Saving/Coast Guard Station. It is open 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $2 for adults; $1.50 for senior citizens and active duty military; and 75 cents for children 6-18 (under six free).

For information call 422-1587 or 491-8608.

REVISITING VIETNAM

NEWPORT NEWS - The War Memorial Museum of Virginia will sponsor a series of programs focusing on the Vietnam War July 30 through Aug. 6, culminating in a "Vietnam Revisited" weekend.

This week-long program is co-sponsored by the Vietnam War Monument Foundation as part of its fund-raising campaign for a Vietnam War Memorial Monument on the Peninsula.

Here are highlights of the week's activities:

July 30

4:30 p.m. - Gallery opening (one-man show of oil paintings by Thomas Nguyen, "Remembrances - A Tribute to the American and Allied Soldiers in Vietnam").

The late Woody Herman chose Tiberi as the orchestra's music director in 1987 when ill health forced the legendary big-band leader to stop performing. His "Thundering Herd" still plays the Herman repetoire, including "The Woodchoppers Ball," "Laura," "Caledonia" and "It Don't Mean a Thing If You Ain't Got That Swing."